


Bloodwork is a Chore

by cloudfromffvii



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Blood Tests, Gen, flashback to medical abuse but its like super vague so it should be okay, i'd consider this a panic attack yeah, my god i hate having blood work done, oh yeah gross little man hojo is also mentioned i guess, ptsd ahoy, that is good stuff, this isnt cloudtifa but like if you wanna read it as romo then pls go ahead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-18 16:29:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9393662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudfromffvii/pseuds/cloudfromffvii
Summary: Cloud's never been very good with needles, but getting blood work done is an unfortunate fact of life. Tifa's never going to make him do it alone, though.





	

**Author's Note:**

> i had to get a blood test done this morning and i hate blood tests so i wrote somethin \o/

The waiting room was far too small. Eight chairs, lined up against walls decorated with generic mass-printed artwork, a small reception counter and a water cooler tucked away in the corner. There were doors leading to three separate rooms branching off from the waiting room, all standing open and trying to draw him in.

Supposedly ‘inviting’. Nothing more than ominous.

He shuffled over to one of the lonely chairs, dragging his feet as he picked the one furthest from any of the offshoot rooms. She headed up to reception in his place, paper clutched firmly in her hand.

“G’morning,” Tifa greeted the nurse sitting at reception, giving her a smile as she handed over the paper. The old woman read lab request through half-rimmed glasses, before peering over them at the single other person currently hiding himself away in a large, hooded sweater. “Sorry we’re so early. Best to get it over and done with, yeah?”

“Not at all, dear,” the woman replied, folding the paper over and setting it aside with a smile. “And you’re absolutely right. We tend to get everyone and their dog coming later on in the day. Is this for you, or your friend?”

“Oh, my friend.”

“Good, good. This is a fasting test- has she eaten anything this morning?”

She paused, swallowing down a wince. At least Cloud hadn’t heard it- the last thing he needed to deal with on a morning like this. “Ah. No, he hasn’t, not since dinner last night.” Hungry and tired, his mood was sour as it was. (If he’d just listened to her and gotten a proper night’s sleep instead of catastrophising into the early morning, this’d have been a nicer visit for everyone involved.)

The nurse returned the pause, raising an eyebrow before nodding. “Wonderful. Well, if you’ll just give me a minute, I can meet him in room number one. Please, go ahead.”

The short woman thanked the nurse, before turning to collect her friend. Glowering up from under a bleach-burned fringe, Cloud refused to get to his feet until Tifa actively reached down and took hold of his hand. He stood close to her, lacing their fingers together as she lead him into the first of the three siderooms. The wall opposite the door was nothing but window, looking out over the city; the room was bare save for a chair and a wide desk with a computer sitting on one side of it.

“You are going to be _fine_ ,” Tifa soothed, helping the man out of his sweater and folding it over her arm. “I’m going to be right here- I can even hold your hand, if you like- and it’ll be over in no time. Just a little pinch, and you’ll be done in seconds.”

“Easy for you to say,” he grumbled back, rubbing a palm over his now-bare arm nervously, “ _you’re_ not the one getting it.”

Tifa was no stranger to her friend’s opinion of medical equipment. Or doctors. Or anything of the sort. The less she let him dwell on it, though, the smoother these situations managed to pass. And she would never leave him to deal with any of this on his own- if anything ever _did_ manage to go wrong, she’d set it right. She’d promised him. That’d been enough to get him out of the house this morning.

“Oh, it’s fine. It’s not like _I’ve_ never had a blood test done before,” she said, giving him a pat on the back. “Sit your ass down. We can go get coffee on the way home after this, if you like. My treat.”

“Damn right it is.” Cloud sat down as he spoke, resting his elbows on the odd arms of the blood-work chair. Snappy as he was, he sounded relieved that the morning’s ordeal would be followed by _something_ pleasant, at least. Tifa laughed, Cloud smiled, and the tension surrounding the young man seemed to ease for all of a few seconds before the nurse entered the room and shut the door behind her. The freckled man went pale as she walked over, beginning to fuss about in one of the desk drawers.

He wasn’t sure when the buzzing static started behind his eyes, but it was getting hard to concentrate.

“Cloud?”

He snapped his eyes to his friend’s face; Tifa’s concerned smile creased her soft cheeks, and she chuckled a little. _When had she grabbed his hand again?_ “Wh-?”

“Really not very good with needles, is he?” Asked the nurse, offering Cloud a friendly smile. She’d been typing at the computer, and now had a strap in her hands. _What was she going to do with that?_ “Don’t worry, dear, your friend has answered the questions I had. She’s already told me you’re not too fond of needles, but this won’t take long. Now, I’m going to strap your arm, alright? Clench your fist for me, dear.”

He nodded, furrowing his brow as he tried to do just that, to no avail. A cursory glance down to his hand explained why; his hand was already gripping the arm of the chair, knuckles burning white. The tourniquet looped around his bicep, and a moment later the nurse pulled it tight. He could already feel the blood pounding against it, and the more he felt it, the faster his heart began to beat. Tifa must have noticed, because she squeezed his other hand- he barely noticed it, thanks to how tight he’d been holding hers. He tried to swallow, but his mouth was dry.

“You’re okay,” she soothed again, “just keep your eyes on me.”

Something cold touched the inside of his elbow and he jumped. “I’ll need you to relax your hand now, dear.” Cloud took a deep breath and obeyed, slowly prying his fingers from their grip on the chair arm. Panic was beginning to settle in his chest, a cold vice on his organs. “Why don’t you count out loud for me? Just count to ten, and it’ll be over before you know it.”

His voice was shaky as he started.

“One, two...”

He couldn’t seem to get enough oxygen in with each breath, panic and fear making his lungs and heart ache as he did his best to keep still. His focus had fallen from Tifa’s face, and from her entirely, as he instead locked his eyes firmly on the wall in front of him.

“Three, four...”

The edges of his vision were blurry and out of focus, but even so he could still see his friend hovering next to him, the nurse standing to his other side, her hands on his arm and the pinch of the needle, the needle, the _needle, the needle, the needle-_

“F-five... six...”

_This won’t hurt a bit, heh heh. Just be a good boy and stay still, and it’ll all be over soon. For today._

His breath was coming harder, sweat prickling on his skin as he clenched his fist again. The nurse said something but he didn’t hear it, instead squeezing his eyes shut and gritting his teeth so hard his jaw hurt as bright green and black flashed behind his eyes and in his throat. Whatever the women either side of him might have been saying, it was drowned out by that terrible buzzing, an awful drone that swallowed everything else whole.

 _Steel needles, plastic tubes, fluorescent lights, cold hard floors, cloudy glass. The clink of metal instruments, the burn of healing stitches, the ache of mending muscle and injection sites and purple bruises. And that laugh,_ **_that laugh_** _, that awful sleazy laugh. Everything was bleary, doped-up snapshots but that laugh rang clear as day._

_He didn’t have a name. He didn’t have a number. He didn’t have anything, but after days and weeks and months of nothing but dizzying black and empty echoes, the first thing that cut through the nothing was a voice repeating the same word over and over again._

_Cloud. Cloud? Cloud._ **_Cloud._ **

“Cloud? Cloud, are you with me?”

He opened his eyes and found himself staring at the skirting boards of the wall, something cold and wet against the back of his neck. Someone was kneeling over him and his breath caught in his throat for a moment, but then she spoke again and he could feel himself relax. He was lying on the ground, his sweater bundled up under his head and Tifa’s hands on his arm. She must have felt him relax because she let out a sigh of relief and moved one hand up to his forehead.

“Hey, it’s alright, I’m right here. I haven’t gone anywhere.” Cloud closed his eyes again with a groan. Did he faint? He must have fainted. He was still shaking like a leaf and he could’ve _sworn_ he could still feel the needle pulsing in his arm, but it was stretched out before him with a little cotton bud taped over the wound, plain as day. “The nurse has just gone to get you some water. But it’s all over now, so you can relax, okay?”

He nodded slowly, and Tifa smiled.

“You’re safe, it’s okay.”


End file.
